Dreams of Yesterday
by Tartarun
Summary: Sakura gets pulled aside days before her graduation for a deep undercover mission into the heart of civilian crime and politics. Sometimes, when it comes down to it, the differences between their worlds isn't so stark after all. Everyone's heart is human and everyone bleeds red at the end of the day.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I had the sudden thought a few months ago that shinobi are probably very poorly equipped to deal with a legal and economic take over of their village if they have nothing to leverage blackmail upon. Sure, assassination works in a feudal system, but it breaks down in systems where the power isn't centralized in one figure head. Sabotage and framing is all very good, but it's difficult to justify it if the movement starts off with advantages for the village and they're faced with a disgruntled population who know their leaders lie and are faced with a grievance when said advantages are gone. Also, how seriously would the Intelligence department take a bunch of civilians when the prejudice against them is so strong?**

**Cue this matter being delegated until it's too late and Kakashi just wants to go back to his days of murder. Sakura makes popcorn on the flames.**

"This isn't fair, sensei!" Hiyori protested, her chair scraping back with a screech as the indignant cadet leapt to her feet, hair practically standing on end like a cat. "Why do we have to pass more tests when they don't?!"

The clan-born cadets who were filtering out for an hour of play sent the girl bored looks. Whining never got anyone very far here. The twelve civilian children remained in their seats; some seething at the unfairness of it all, mature enough to know this was unjust, yet just immature enough to not realise that there _was _a vast gulf between them and their peers so this was necessary. Others gritted their teeth, wanting to join their friends, wary of what content this surprise test would contain and frantically trying to remember what they could from the day's lessons.

"Hiyori-chan." Iruka-sensei said, slapping a paper on her desk, "Sit down. You do not mean to tell me that you spent five years with your classmates and did not pick up basic facts about their families? If you are not aware of unofficial rivalries, how will you compose teams when you are a Chunin? If you do not pick up on unsavoury rumours about a team-mate, who will you blame when they turn out to be true and they betray you on a mission? This is to provide you with knowledge of Konoha's shinobi society, much of which cannot be covered in lectures, but _must _be learnt through osmosis with the population."

The girl wilted, "But-"

The man glared. "Walking into the shinobi world with foreign etiquette and ignorant will cause your death."

In the corner of Sakura's vision, an orange blur slammed to his feet. "I'm not even civilian born, dattebayo!" The boy scowled fiercely. "Why am I here?"

Iruka-sensei straightened, "Naruto! You lag behind everyone when it comes to basic information. In addition, you were not raised by any clan despite what heritage you might hold. You _lack _this knowledge!"

"Then, why does Sasuke-teme get a free pass?" The blond boy howled, "It's not like-"

There was a sharp inhale of breath. The oxygen in the room was suddenly sucked out, leaving the boy silent and tight jawed, as if even he had realised that he would be going too far if he brought it up so insensitively.

_Baka _Naruto! Sakura thought horrified. Of course, Sasuke knew all this, regardless of what had happened to the Uchiha, he had still been raised by a Founding Clan for most of his life. The boy had probably forgotten more rumours and gossip (not that Sasuke-kun ever made such a silly mistake such as forgetting something he heard once) about the other clans from being the son of the Police Chief than the rest of them combined.

It had been awful timing. If Naruto had waited even a second longer, Sasuke would have twisted the doorknob and passed out of hearing range. Instead, the dark-haired boy retracted his hand, curling every finger into a white knuckled fist, silent as the grave. Sakura glimpsed _raw _emotion twisting his features before smoothening out to something blank and challenging.

The Uchiha swung his fist to his mouth as if he wanted to bite down, to trap what cutting words he wanted to say in a snap of teeth and bloody knuckles, but his hand hovered an inch or two above thin lips before falling away.

"Give me that test." He said, chillingly calm.

The entire room was silent, each aghast child watching the spectacle like Naruto was going to burst into flames and that Sasuke would be the one to do it. _Really! _Bringing up the fact that Sasuke-kun had lost his family like _that- _so crudely- so, _so _bluntly- Sakura's blood was hot in the pulse of her jaw.

"Sensei." The Uchiha said evenly, "I am sitting it," He glanced at Naruto and the smaller boy nearly flinched back, "I'll be finishing it within twenty minutes, So, you know. And taking top place. Beat me if you _can, _dead-last."

Ino looked furious at the insult to Sasuke's honour. Sakura spied her fingers curling and straightening as if retracting from a kunai grip.

Funnily, Iruka-sensei seemed hesitant, trading a sharp glance with Mizuki-sensei over their heads before nodding reluctantly.

Sakura was excited for the test. It was sufficiently different from the usual bookwork that it had the potential to be quite interesting. She spun her pencil between her fingers, the cat charm flying.

The sound of pen scratching on paper was both familiar and comforting. It started off simple, asking about market place rumours, family rivalries, legends sparked from historical events before moving onto hypothetical scenarios where the knowledge had to be put in use in longer essay style questions. Most students would struggle with its length and breadth.

True to his word, Sasuke-kun handed his paper in eighteen minutes into the exam, pinning Naruto with a viciously satisfied look and a sharp expression of warning. After this spectacular performance, Mizuki-sensei must have gotten bored because he started to tap a tune on the table with his red pen, waiting for the next student.

The last question involved a cipher block that took up half of the page. She didn't need to crack it but had to answer the question what was likely to happen if there was a cross contamination of clan codes and protocols in the field, with this one specifically, and if there were any recent examples to back her argument up. The question could be solved without breaking the cipher and reading the plain-text but Sakura had finished and she was bored. She just didn't want to upstage Sasuke-kun too much by finishing ten minutes after him. She might have been civilian born but having Ino for a friend and rival was almost as good.

No test would ever reveal the secrets of the clan codes, so their use in class involved a proxy and were indexed in the back of their book with a warning that this was a filler cipher and could be lethal if misunderstood. Bored, she scribbled the plaintext for the clans given in the question: Nara, Hyuuga, and Inuzuka.

_LISTEN._

_CAREFULLY._

_CADET._

The hair on the back of her neck raised. Goose bumps raised down her arms and rippled down her spine. What was this? Then she scolded herself for being silly, of course it wasn't addressed to her, it was just an example code-

The sensei's tapping filled her ears.

Sakura swallowed, forced herself to look nonchalant and translated the Morse a character at a time. The sequence made no sense, so she scratched it out. It made sense for it to be some other auditory code. Morse was easy to recognise and many wouldn't need the hint embedded deep in the exam paper to recognise its use.

The paper yielded no clue on other ciphers, so she watched the sensei carefully. The white-haired man yawned, pen flicking idly in his grip, the cap and tip striking the wood cleanly in an unpredictable rhythm. There. Only one of them was important. Or perhaps both. It was two ciphers interwoven together. No wonder translating the entire thing didn't make sense.

BRING BEAUTY'S CORPSE AT MIDNIGHT WHERE HEROES LIE.

OUR SECRET CADET.

She stared blankly at the paper and scrunched it into a little ball when Iruka-sensei passed by her back to hand out more paper. Mizuki-sensei? Or both of the Academy teachers? Was this real, or was she hallucinating a plot out of her fiction novels?

But one thing was for certain.

Her hand shot up. "Mizuki-sensei!" She barked, and the man looked up startled, his tapping broken.

_Once you have an advantage, protect it. _

"Sensei, may I go to the bathroom?" She asked sweetly, the very picture of innocence.

"Are you done?" He asked, a wry unsurprised grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Go on then. You're free."

She went to hand her paper in but slid the extra working paper into her pocket when they weren't looking. As she passed Naruto, she pretended to stumble, falling heavily (well, as heavily as she could manage) into the back of his chair. Girl and boy tumbled in a startled mess on the floor, Sakura apologising sheepishly.

Naruto was remarkably gentlemanly about it, only telling her once that she had to go on a date with him to make up for her clumsiness before waving it off with a cheeky grin. She traced the edge of the lighter she had pickpocketed from the boy in the chaos. Kami knew why he had one, everyone knew Iruka sensei would go ballistic if any of them smoked at this age, but her observation had paid off. She knew she had seen him playing with the flickering flame at the edge of the playground the other day.

Sakura strolled leisurely to the bathroom to keep up the pretence, heart pounding its own Morse beat. What did it mean? Beauty's corpse? And why to them? Why wasn't Sasuke-kun given the chance to hear it? Why not any of the clan kids? She had to hurry, without her view in the classroom she had no way of knowing who else was close to figuring out the code. Was it extra credit? Sakura perked up and skipped to a stall, lowered the lid and hopped up.

The crumpled ball of paper took to the wavering flame well. The corners curled and turned ashen grey as it caught fire. It took a few seconds of waving the smoke near the smoke detector to set it off with a ringing clangour. To get rid of the damning evidence, she flushed the burnt paper and the lighter down the toilet with a guilty promise to reverse pickpocket Naruto a new one.

There. She would be the only one with this knowledge now. They would be too concerned with the fire alarm: this test was over. Her very first act of intrigue had her hands shaking when she went to unlock the stall. Was this right? Was this right of her to set off a fire alarm to satisfy her curiosity about a mysterious message and keep it selfishly to herself?

"Sakura-senpai!" Kiko from the year below stuck her head in, blinked, and complained. "You have to evacuate the building when you hear the alarm."

"Aa." She agreed. "Awful timing this. We were in the middle of a test."

The younger girl rolled her eyes. "Only _you _would be upset at a test being cut short, senpai. Come _on. _Everyone's trooped out already."

She let the girl drag her forward, out of the bathroom, mind still clicking clearly. "Know what caused it, Kiko? It's a bad time for a drill."

"Who cares?" Sakura got a breezy answer, "Some upperclassmen messing around with fire jutsus again?" Kiko sent her a cheeky smile, "Think it might be an early day today. There's no way the senseis can get all of us back to studying for the last half an hour after this."

Yes. She had been counting on that, actually. Sakura mulled it over some more and came to the conclusion that Iruka-sensei or Mizuki-sensei couldn't blame her for using such tactics which they had taught her. It…wasn't technically cheating as she hadn't gotten her answers illegally so she should be fine? Sabotage was another ballgame entirely.

Her homeroom teachers were shooting each other frustrated looks in the corners of their eyes when she re-joined the neat queue (which, at the moment, consisted of just her and the two teachers). The civilian children, once they had been let out to join the clan kids, had jumped into their ninja games with gusto. Sakura was the only one standing there silently, scanning them pensively to see if anyone else had noticed. She was so distracted that she forgot to join the gaggle of girls giggling near Sasuke, but that was only suspicious to Ino and no one else.

"Fine!" Iruka-sensei yelled after a brief, intense discussion with his colleague. "We'll continue tomorrow. Go home all of you, while we check out what caused the alarm."

-######################################################-

Sakura took her shoes off and placed them on the rack, noting her father's shoes on the row above.

"I'm home!" She called, moving deeper into the house.

Haruno Kirai met her in the kitchen, a deep violet yukata stark against his pale skin, made paler by the sweep of pink hair pulled back in a dignified ponytail.

"And what did you do today, little warrior?" He asked, amused, stirring honey into his tea. His eyes rested lightly on her cut fingers where she had fumbled a kunai throw. If only he knew what she had done today. She bit back the urge to tell him instinctively. _OUR SECRET CADET. _ "Have you realised this is no life for you yet?"

"I can do this." She told him, repeating the same words she had for the past five years, and he touched her nose gently with the tip of his finger.

"It does not take a day to realise a mistake. What you can do, is not the same as what you should do." He said sternly. "I will ask you again tomorrow."

She hugged him and he poured her a cup of green tea, still steaming from the kettle.

"I will not change my answer."

"My daughter is talented indeed." He mocked, "Since when could you predict the future with such certainty?"

"Hey, dad." She hopped up on the kitchen counter, swinging her legs and taking note of her scabbed knees. "Are there heroes out there?"

The man blinked, utterly caught off guard. The curling smile that pulled at his smirk was wicked. "Do you still believe in fairy tales, little warrior?" He sounded delighted, as if he'd turned over an empty, hard shell only to find a hiding clam, soft and vulnerable. "Define me a hero, and let's try this again, hm?" He sipped at his tea and slid into a chair, all grace and tousled elegance.

"Someone who the Village would consider a hero."

"Ah." His smile became ever so slightly brittle. "War heroes. A tad different to the ones you tell the children to help them sleep. Yes, of course there are. The last war is still in living memory, after all. Of course, you do not need a world war to be considered a hero but it does help to die in the line of fire. The number of dead heroes dwarf the living ones. It almost makes one think that martyrdom is cheaper than skill."

She frowned. That was a remarkably macabre way to look at things. "If I use another definition. The usual one? The one where the hero is a good person, saves lives and is respected by all."

Haruno Kirai didn't answer for a long moment, calmly sipping his tea.

"Well, Sakura." He said pleasantly. "You might hypothesise about such people; I couldn't possibly comment." Her father saw her displeased expression and laughed, "Your description is too vague. A _good person_? What is that? _Saves lives_ is easy enough, just take any medic; _respected by all_ is difficult, however. One man's idol is another man's mortal enemy. Does a hero need a villain to be the hero, dear? In your hypothetical scenario?"

"Let's say that they do." Sakura allowed it suspiciously.

Haruno Kirai spread his hands. "Why? Doesn't nearly every shinobi in Konoha qualify as a hero for us then, if you waive the _good _definition slightly? And the shinobi in Suna for Suna, Kumo for Kumo- you get my point."

_BRING BEAUTY'S CORPSE AT MIDNIGHT WHERE HEROES LIE. _

Where heroes lay? Where heroes spoke lies?

The latter was almost redundant. Shinobi were _meant _to lie but heroes were meant to be better than that? She wasn't sure on the specifics for shinobi heroes though. So, where did dead heroes go? Obviously, they were reborn into their next life, but that wasn't exactly somewhere Sakura could go…Perhaps it referred to where their ashes were stored?

"Dad." She asked, turning over the problem, "Is there anything in the village which commemorates fallen shinobi or celebrates which heroes the village produces?"

"You mean the Memorial Stone?" He said flippantly. "Shinobi who die in the line of duty have their names carved there. It's near Training Ground 7, I don't know why you're so interested but it's there if you wanted to see it."

"How…how do you know such a thing exists?" Sakura boggled. It was a good question. How did a civilian know that there was a monument detailing fallen shinobi, let alone where it was? There was an implicit agreement between the two halves of Konoha that they would not breach each other's territory unless completely necessary. Haruno Kirai strolling into the heart of the training grounds to go sight-seeing should not have been allowed. She had been expecting something along the lines of documented archives of past speeches where the civilians were informed of notable feats and acts by the shinobi population.

He ruffled her hair. "Reasons, little warrior." The man stood and stretched his arms above his head. "You graduate next week, no? Do you want anything special for dinner?"

"Only if I pass." She protested, "I might not. There's tons of people who repeat years." Baka Naruto had failed several times, hadn't he?

"Yes." He agreed, "And plenty of people who it might have helped to repeat more." Haruno Kirai smiled at her, charming and blinding and _sharp_, before floating into the next room with a vague instruction to wash up.

…#########################################################...

It hadn't taken her long to figure out what beauty's corpse meant after that. What did people put on memorials?

Sakura pushed open the door to the Yamanaka flower shop, hating the fact that she didn't know any better florists. She let out a mental groan when she saw who was manning the counter. _No…not now…_She didn't need to keep a secret from a mind-reader in training who doubled as her best friend right now…

Ino's polite smile turned shark like once she noticed who it was.

"Forehead." There was glee hiding under the taunt. The girl leaned on the countertop, blonde hair falling artfully over one eye, all childish fire and poison. "What are you doing here? Ready to admit defeat yet?"

"You should spend more time talking to people than flowers, Pig." Sakura bit back, "It's clearly making you delusional."

"Yes. I need lessons in socialising from you." Ino placed her chin on the back of her manicured nails and smiled beatifically. "Did you enjoy your little test today? I hope you did, because the sight of Sasuke-kun talking to me after he came out would have shattered your little _heart._"

Sakura's breath left her in a rush. Was this true? Sasuke had approached Ino after the test? Why?

"What?" She was proud to tone down her surprise and almost convert it into a casual question. It was almost like she could pretend that her heart wasn't attempting to twist itself into a knot. "Oh, no. Is he okay?"

Ino's brow furrowed, "Why…wouldn't he be okay?"

"Well, he thought it was a good idea to talk to you." Sakura blinked at her innocently. "Maybe he got a concussion from a spar earlier."

"He won all of his spars earlier!" Ino snarled. "As you very well know from staring at him like a love-sick idiot."

"Oh? Were you looking at me instead of him? You're slipping in your dedication."

Ino breathed in deeply. "When was the last time he even acknowledged you, Forehead?" Victory tainted her tone. "Perhaps it's Naruto, you know?"

"Naruto?" Sakura was intrigued at this new line of logic.

"Yeah. We both heard him be a royal ass earlier. Maybe Sasuke-kun thought, rather rightfully, that the girl, such a brat has a crush on, is a bit of a bitch too. I know they say opposites attract, Forehead, but it's far more likely to like someone based on mutual similarities, you know."

"Thank you." Sakura said cheerfully. "So, what do I have in common with Sasuke-kun, then? Yours is easy, you're both heirs to clans and…that's it, I believe."

"Your similarity?" Ino said, just as cheerfully. "It's how boyish you are!"

Sakura stared at Ino, trying very hard not to laugh. From the other girl's mirthful eyes, Ino was having the same fight.

"I have _pink _hair." Sakura said. "I'm in a dress."

"And let me tell you, girl." Ino said without missing a beat. "I support you in all of your fashion decisions regardless of how strange you look."

Sakura leaned in, "Hey. Pig. Which one of us has the admirer again?"

"Only one?" Ino asked lightly, eyes half lidded. "And you want to compete with me, Forehead? Dream on."

Sakura slapped the counter and pointed. "It's no good being the traditional girl in such modern times. You haven't asked me what I'm here for. Maybe _I'm _going to ask the guy out for a change. Can I get some service here?"

"Right." Ino said incredulously. "You're going to ask Sasuke-kun out. Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Alright." Sakura conceded the point, "But I need flowers anyway." She tapped the counter with her nail, "Could I get some?"

"I would say no, but it's so pathetic watching you crawl back when you need something." Ino wiped her hands on her apron and stepped out from behind the counter, "What do you need?"

"Flowers meaning beauty." Sakura hopped up on the high-chair, watching Ino flit around the cosy arrangement. "Also, a bouquet of spider lilies, please."

Ino stilled. "That time already?"

Sakura shook her head, "Nah. But it's the final exam next week. I wanted to update her."

"Oh." Ino said, and plucked some red flowers from its bunch, like a woodpecker in her precision. "Know what kind of beauty you want to signify?"

"Why are you helping me?" Sakura demanded, somewhat puzzled at this lack of mocking.

"I sincerely doubt you're going to walk up to Sasuke-kun and tell him he's _beautiful _to ask him out." Ino said, very dryly, "We both know that he is but some things can't be said to boys. What kind of beauty?" She snapped her fingers.

"What are my choices?" Sakura asked weakly. She really should have paid more attention in those flower arranging lessons.

Ino sighed noisily and pointed. "Amaryllis for splendid beauty. Carnation for pride and beauty. Lily for refined beauty. Orchid for exotic beauty. Stock for lasting beauty-"

"Some of each will do." Sakura interrupted hastily. She knew what kind of lecture this was building up to.

"What's this for?" The question was slightly muffled as Ino started to arrange a bouquet and held flowers between her lips for convenient placing. "Is it for your dad? That's kinda sweet."

"Oh, yeah." She said, guiltily. "A pot of Sweet William for him, please." Ino rolled her eyes but snagged it from somewhere. "That reminds me. He wants to do dinner for me next week for the finals thing. I'm guessing your family is doing the same?" Ino nodded, slightly distracted. "Want to watch the worst movie I can find after that?" Sakura offered. "I'll make it a cringy, sappy romance and I offer sarcastic commentary throughout. Take it or leave it."

The Yamanaka grinned again, teeth flashing, eyes fixed on the emerging bouquet. "You don't want to watch something with your dad?"

"Dad…" Sakura hesitated. "I don't think that would be the best idea, no." Ino shot her a sharp glance but didn't pry when both were in public. "So, you in or not? Or are you dooming me to an evening with the cat?"

"You don't have a cat."

"I will go get a cat if your cruelty drives me to it." Sakura said waspishly. "I wouldn't be surprised; you've been abandoning me more and more in favour of your precious Sasuke-kun-"

"We have gone to the _same _things for Sasuke-kun." Ino pointed out, Sakura's emotional blackmail completely missing its mark. "We just didn't go alone."

"And how is it their place to interfere in our contest?" Sakura asked angrily. "Sasuke-kun won't even look twice at them, why are they even bothering with the farce that they have a chance? Cha!" She pointed. "You lose to one of them, Pig, and I won't acknowledge you as my rival anymore."

"Brave of you to assume you're my rival." The girl murmured, wrapping up the flowers.

Sakura stared in disbelief. "I'm sorry?"

Ino tapped her cheek, "Well, Hiyori is rather good at conversing. She's so much more socially active than you, and a terror to fight. Wouldn't she make a good rival?"

"Yes, go talk to her if you want to be talked to death."

"Reika. She scored rather highly on the last few quizzes, did you know? Her new hair cut is also quite cute."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I wouldn't know." Sakura said mildly. "I don't keep track of the people jostling for second place in the girl's section."

"_Third._"

"Honestly, Ino, second place is not unattainable if you just try. There's no need to settle for third."

"I think I liked you better when you were too shy to talk back." Ino quickly wrapped up the spider lilies. She stated a price and Sakura forked it over.

Casting a critical eye over everything, Sakura noticed something. "You haven't charged me for everything." She said in surprise.

"Don't throw accusations which you can't back up." Ino snapped. The cash register snapped shut with a _snap _and she dumped the change in Sakura's palm. "Leave now, shoo. I have work to do." The blonde made little shooing movements towards a Sakura who didn't know whether to be highly amused or dreadfully offended. "The film is fine, I'll bring snacks. Mum got me some candied hawthorn."

"What work?" She focused on this utter lie with needle precision. Leaning over the counter, she snatched the manga away from Ino's pathetic attempt to hide it. "Oh, you're so _busy, _my mistake." Sakura tossed it back with an eyeroll. "That's a trash title and you know it."

"You recommended it!" Ino hissed, face red.

"Absolute lies." Sakura had nearly fallen asleep in lectures one day after staying up half the night to binge said title and struggling to contain her laughter at how ridiculous it was. "Anyways, look at the time, got to go, so busy, so much to do, I'm sure you don't relate-" Best to leave before Ino snapped and tried to stuff the bouquet down Sakura's throat. The glint in the other girl's eye was dangerous. With a cheeky grin, she backpedalled hard, waving to a rather confused Inoichi in the back room who waved back absentmindedly.

…..#####################################################...

Haruno Kirai showcased the Sweet William with the other half dead plants with a rather smug air. She didn't know why she kept buying him plants when his very touch seemed to drain the life from them.

She had asked him once why their garden was more suited to Halloween than a friendly neighbourhood and he had grinned. _"Keeps me young. Look at this face, Sakura, you'll get wrinkles before your old man." _He would pinch her forehead and exaggerate future frown lines with his nail. _"Your Mam made me stop eating the babies. Said it would set a bad example for you. That true, daughter? You probably shouldn't let me cook then." _With a jeer, he would send her off. She had picked at her chicken for weeks after that with suspicious eyes while he encouraged her to eat more, voice straining with laughter.

Hirohito-san was over for dinner with his son, Ren. The man mopped at his forehead and chuckled nervously every time her father did so much as look at him and ask if his bonsai trees were doing well. Ren appreciated Sakura for her hair colour alone and had come today with his dyed a brilliant green.

"What?" Haruno Kirai asked a near sobbing Hirohito-san, "Isn't it obvious that he inherited his love of growing green things from you? Sit down, lad, I'll lend you some spray. Kids should have _fun, _don't you agree, Yamato-senpai?"

Hirohito-san wailed something about respectability, moral descent of today's youth and something about Yakuza before scowling at his vegetables. Sakura distracted him with conversation about his fitness goals and he sniffed, calling her a good child. Ren slanted her a half-hearted glare when his father started laying into him for being a hooligan.

Kirai and Sakura exchanged a look, one brilliantly neutral and one deeply suspicious. Sakura was very sure that Ren had never done anything hooligan like in his life, the older boy was far too gentle for anything malicious. It was _Sakura _with the knife collection under her bed who came back with bruised knuckles and cut lips from friendly lady like training sessions which went utterly sideways with jealous competition. Just what had he told them that she did?

"Sakura made the dessert." Her father said shamelessly to distract everyone.

"I wish Ren had a cute girl friend to make him food." Hirohito-san said gloomily. "He's going to starve if he needs to cook his own food."

"Ah…"

Leaving her father to deal with _that _mess- really, he had brought it upon himself, she had no sympathy-

She looked forward to the man's reaction when Ren revealed he had been dating a waitress at _Madame Miri's Magic _for the last two years. They had run into each other, him on a date and hurriedly trying to act like he was a studious, filial son while literally skipping club activity to eat ice cream with Himari-san. Their relationship had improved significantly when she had something to blackmail him with and he realised that she wasn't going to rat him out.

"Please." Ren said sweetly, stabbing at his cake. "I don't mean to be negative but disappoint your father."

"I'm training to be a kunoichi."

He hummed, laughing under his breath, anticipating his father's face when his pedestal broke and shattered at his feet. "Can I please tell him?"

"I will stab you."

He carried on laughing quietly at the mismatch between reality and the image in his father's head. Ren talked her into showing him one of her knives after dinner. He handled the weighted blade incredibly well, betraying his experience in handling such a weapon. Their parents had retreated to Kirai's study with sake bottles to talk business.

"Lovely thing." The older boy murmured, spinning it around his finger.

"That?" Sakura asked scornfully. "It's not even sharp. Look at _this one._" She shoved one she had spent hours sharpening under his nose. The boy shot her an incredulous look and laid the edge against his palm. It sliced through skin immediately and blood welled.

"_What_ _do you mean this isn't sharp?"_

She set her sharper knife aside and sighed. "You're such an idiot, Ren-san. Why would you cut yourself with a shinobi's weapons? I poison mine." There was precisely one second to appreciate her joke and his wide, panicked gaze screaming that he hadn't been expecting that and he really should have- then the boy _freaked. _She had to kick his knees out into a recliner and offer him a glass of water as the 'antidote' (He refused to believe that she had been joking about the poison) before he calmed down. Still, the boy refused to sit still after that, wringing his hands, large pupiled eyes flickering all over the room, throat pulsing.

Kirai folded his arms at her after they left, eyebrow arched. "I recognise those symptoms."

She spread her hands innocently. "It's not a poison. Who told him to cut himself on a knife?"

"Little idiot." He agreed easily, ruffling her hair. Something wicked flashed in those dark eyes.

"I need to go out tonight." She said as they did the dishes. He hummed and passed her a plate to dry, his yukata unravelling from its neat lines around his neck, exposing his collar bones. "I'll let myself in, no need to stay up."

"Alright."

Too easy. She narrowed her eyes at him, "What's the catch?"

He looked almost offended before wiping off the expression and replacing it with a haughty look of disinterest. "Your distrust is unwarranted."

"Your blatant lie is unwanted." She said sharply. The man rolled his eyes and muttered something about manners and uncute daughters.

"Can I not trust my daughter?" Kirai set the soap down, sleeves rolled to his elbows. The edge of his smile was mean. "My perfectly responsible daughter. My daughter who never lies to me, nor drugs my guests under my roof, nor keeps secrets from her old, worried father."

"Hey. He drugged himself." Her protest was feeble even to her ears. Her father rolled his eyes. "You're not old, Papa." She glomped his waist and pouted cutely at him, trying to take advantage of his fatherly instincts. He levelled a perfectly unimpressed stare at her, the edge of his mouth twitching.

Sakura was moved firmly off by the heel of the man's wet palm on her forehead.

"In the future, little warrior, when someone is giving you what you want, it isn't wise to push them to change their mind." He advised sagely and jerked her chin up by two fingers to meet his unreadable gaze. "Sakura, if this is about a boy, I'm going to be very disappointed. And then you'll be thanking all the gods you know that I'm not your mother."

"That's a lot of thanks." She said doubtfully. She knew a lot of gods.

His eyes were dark, and cool, and so very amused.

"You're my blood so of course you'll succeed to whatever you put your heart to. But give up on the Uchiha boy. He has an impressive façade but beneath that human mask, there's not a shred of love left for you. And there never will be unless something shatters his world for him."

Her head snapped to meet his gaze. She could feel her eyes hurt from the lack of blinking. Swallowing had suddenly become painful. Something foreign and _hot _wrapped around her heart cutting her breath off at the pass. She thought she had buried it deep, this realization that while Ino and the rest cooed over Sasuke's fathomless gaze as something romantic, she saw it on her father's face when hosting his business partners or when he caught sight of himself in the mirror and the warmth left his features- eyes cold, flat and utterly _empty_. It had terrified her so much that she had forced herself to forget it. Why was she remembering it now?

"You don't know that." Her voice was hoarse. Sakura had forgotten that she could still do this. Focus on a single target with such relentless intensity that all of her previous worries, so petty now, faded away. She didn't like it. It felt too much like someone else was peering out from behind her eyes, all cool clinical interest and endless _rage._

"Prove me wrong at your wedding, child." The man said.

"Shut up."

He snickered, his little finger on the pulse in her neck, long cold fingers wrapping around her cheek and jaw, their pink hair mingling together. "Shall I sort it for you? Your father never thought to teach you such tricks so early but if you insist on loving that shell, I will do my best to support you. Will that make you happy?" The man asked wickedly, "Careful now, I'll know if you lie."

Her heart was pounding so much she could feel it in her temples. She barely noticed his proximity, mind conjuring images of the dark haired boy in the Academy. The world was unjust, she knew, but this choice was just an illusion. There were steel jaws behind each answer she could give and both of them knew it.

Sakura just stopped herself from knocking her father's hands away. It was his tactic to distract her, fluster her enough and throw her off guard with this bombshell that she would overlook whatever plan he had up his sleeve.

Her breaths were shallow.

She opened her eyes and glared, locking him stare for stare. Saying either yes or no would be dangerous here, he could take her words, twist them and run with it.

"Like you support me becoming a kunoichi?"

"That little thing?" Kirai's voice was low and lazy. "You've yet to show me that both of your obsessions are anything but that. You're at the Academy, aren't you? Despite everything?"

With a smirk, he released her, then frowned, reaching out and pinching her nose with two knuckles, using it to drag her forward. Startled, she flailed.

"Do not lose your head over a boy you barely know." There was the shadow of something dangerous in his drawl. "Do _not. _You have no real attachment to him, he has no reason to like you, you'll only jeopardise yourself if you forget what you're dealing with."

At her non-reply, his dark eyes narrowed.

"This world is vaster than anyone knows, and you decide that you've found your love down your street?"

Her jaw creaked. "What are you saying?" Sakura half laughed, "I never took you for a hypocrite."

Unexpectedly, her father flinched as if she had slapped him at the mention of Aisa. His smile faded but when he stood back up to his full height, Sakura knew that she was in the clear. Her answer had been put him on the defensive for now.

"Sorry." She muttered, suddenly ashamed. "But we're eleven. Aren't you taking this a bit too seriously?"

Haruno Kirai smiled and it was all teeth and indulgent charm. He patted her on the head and cold dishwater trickled down her neck. "That's true. Forgive me, I forget sometimes." A sigh. "If you're going out, who's going to play go with me tonight?"

"I'll play two games with you tomorrow." She promised quickly and he shot her a stern look.

"Oh, fine." He sighed, picking up the soapy plate again. "I suppose it can't be helped."

….#############################################...

Her father was playing the koto when she left, clutching the bouquet. In the mood she had put him in, he would play well into the night, alone in his room with the songs he had composed for his wife. Sakura chose to honour her differently. The spider lilies rested in a white porcelain vase before the woman's name on the familial shrine along with some incense.

Shinobi Konoha at near midnight was still manned, in stark contrast to the empty streets of the civilian district. People loitered around bars, strolled in the street lit parks, smoked outside shops with grilled windows and generally ignored her. She supposed adults had better things to do than to think about a civilian girl holding a bunch of flowers, scurrying through them. It wasn't as if she didn't have the right to be there: she was a student at the Academy and a citizen, it was just _unusual _not illegal.

She did want a map though. This was silly, she was probably over thinking this, there was probably no one there- how stupid did she have to be to take a class test so seriously? Maybe this was a lesson on paranoia, that seeing things where there weren't any was just as deadly as not seeing anything when there was danger. Maybe Iruka and Mizuki-sensei were waiting with cameras to capture who fell for their little trick; how would she face everyone then?

Uncharacteristically nervous, she ducked into a side alley and clutched at her cheeks. Why had she come wearing her face? Applying a henge would be _stupid. _Any shinobi worth the name would notice an amateur's attempt and then she really would be in trouble.

_If it wasn't important, then they wouldn't have waited until Sasuke-kun left the room. _

Yes. That was right. She tapped a beat on the stone wall with her nail. That was the intriguing fact here. They wanted the civilian kids to be the only ones to hear the message, added onto the fact that there was not a single pair of eyes looking at her now despite her sticking out like a sore thumb…they were trying not to scare her. They knew she was coming and had been expecting _someone. _No…that didn't make sense either, there was no reason for the secrecy earlier only for it to be so obvious and widespread knowledge now.

Sakura retrieved her pocket mirror with shaky hands, and almost dropped it when she saw her reflection.

An ordinary face looked back at her, bags under their eyes, lines at the corner of their mouth from pressing her lips together. A hitaite was clasped loosely around her forehead, pinning brown hair flat against her cheeks. A perfectly ordinary, tired genin.

Some_one _knew she was coming alright. And wanted to keep it secret from everyone else. Kami, she hadn't even felt the application. Her mind threw up wild scenarios of what could have happened if an enemy nin had managed to pull the same trick. She snapped the mirror shut, heart racing. Was this not proof that she was right?

There was a _woof _from the mouth of the alley and she almost jumped out of her skin. A pug stood there panting, tongue lolling against sharp white teeth, scratching its ear with its leg. It barked again, ran up to her legs and demanded attention by rolling over and throwing her an oddly imperial look for a dog. Sakura had no choice but to obey. However, the light from the streetlight shone a full moon off her watch dial and with a start, she noticed that she only had ten minutes left.

"I'm going to be late!" She muffled her voice just in time, jumping to her feet in dismay. The pug yawned, not very concerned.

The training areas were vast stretches of black space. Some of them bristled with ancient forests and one of them had a lake large enough to drown her house; the more she looked, the more her eyes adjusted to the oppressing darkness and more details jumped out to her. Lights flashed in a couple, flitting through the trees, clashing like fireflies, boggling her with their speed. It smelled of raw earth, iron and smoke, of bonfires and wet leaves, of things she had never heard of and made her heady. Sakura could deal with all of these, but worst of all was the _chakra. _The miasma of thousands of jutsus lingered in the air, settling on her skin like a lingering hand.

It suddenly crashed into her that this was too real to be laughed off later as a bad idea. Something about the darkness made it easier to imagine the more horrific outcomes.

Her knees might have turned to water but Sakura had never backed out halfway when she decided to do something. She was already here, why not go and see what this was about?

Training Ground 7 was desolate. The wind rustled through the trees and the leaves rasped under her feet despite her best attempt to walk silently. Now where would shinobi place a memorial to their heroes? Sakura turned on her heel and walked off the beaten path. If she knew anything, it would be in a clearing and not where it could be knocked easily by sparring nin. Groping blindly in a forest was not fun…she almost tripped over more branches, roots and uneven stones than she could count. Twigs scratched at her face and once she walked into a spiderweb.

After wandering for a fair bit, with a hint of embarrassment she realised that she had walked right past it near the start. She laid the bouquet at the memorial's base and murmured some prayers as was expected, then looked around. The stone itself was smaller than she had expected but _solid_, the writing cramped and gleaming pale even in the current limited lighting.

Paranoia raised the hairs on the back of her neck. It was very clear that she was alone and the haunting atmosphere was playing her courage like a stringed instrument. She knew she was a bit late but she had expected to see _someone _here. Disappointment and anger rose as a lump in her throat- what was the point of the message then? Had she really been right the first time, that all of the suspicious behaviour had just been coincidences, that this was nothing more than a waste of time? Who had cast the Genjutsu then? If this was just a mean spirited prank to humiliate Sakura about overanalysing things, then…the eleven year old was not immune to the thought of everyone laughing at her naivety the next day, that she had fallen for something which was obviously fake…she would have suspected Naruto but this was beyond anything the blond come up with himself.

Sighing and wishing that she had brought a warmer coat, she sat on a low hanging branch. Rubbing her hands together did little to help. She would give it some time, then leave. Perhaps she had interpreted the riddle incorrectly? What was a _hero _and what could someone mean by using that word?

An hour later, she slipped off the branch, too tired to continue. She had done more than enough, anyone more than an hour late for something they set up themselves without a good reason wasn't worth meeting anyway. Sakura would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed. For a brief evening, her life had been mysterious and exciting, just like a story. Reality had thrown cold water over her hopes but she cherished the feeling before it slipped away in a memory.

The underbrush rustled.

Sakura tried to jump back up the tree and grab a kunai simultaneously, accomplishing both in an inelegant stumble, breath fluttering in her chest.

A furry head poked its head out, tongue lolling.

Her second dog of the night barked cheerfully at her before emerging. His coat shone under the moon and his large paws made no noise on the leaf strewn ground. The dog frolicked at her feet, driving her back a few steps and she almost tripped over a low lying root. It dropped a bite worn, saliva dripping wreck of a ball by her hand and looked at her patiently.

"What." She was too flabbergasted to emote much. "No. Where did you get that from? The dump?"

The dog barked and she almost jumped out of her skin at its increased volume.

"No. Shush. Shush." She clamped her hands over its muzzle and hissed at it. It would do her no favours if people were to find out she was here. Unfortunately, dogs didn't understand subtlety and its barking grew louder and louder.

"_Fine!_" She snatched it up, seething at losing to a canine half her size. "I'll throw it for you. Just _shut up._"

It grinned at her, all teeth and crimson tongue. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, not sure how intelligent dogs were on average. More than her previous estimate at any rate. The dog bounded after the thrown ball and she legged it in the other direction. It didn't seem like any time had passed at all before the wind was knocked out of her. Sakura's jaw hit the ground with a painful tremor which travelled to her teeth, hands scraping off sharp rock. The massive weight on her back shifted so that she could breathe and dropped the damned ball by her gasping face.

The dog had the _audacity _to whine at her. Like _she _was the one causing it pain by refusing to cooperate! Sakura would like to make it back home without broken bones, but _no, _some bastard hadn't played with their dog enough and now apparently it was her job! She flailed but the dog had her solidly pinned with its weight spread over her lower back and legs, large paws on the back of her neck. It even nosed her as if questioning why she wasn't getting up. She was going to make a rug out of this pet.

She had never used _Kawarimi _outside of a controlled Academy setting and it was mildly humiliating to realise that she had no other choice. Sakura sped through the signs, snapping out the word in a low growl and landed on shaky legs a few feet away as the dog rolled off the smoking log.

"You." Her finger shook.

It batted the ball at her with its paw and a doggy grin.

"I am not playing with you."

It was almost like dogs couldn't understand human speech. Her words had no effect on the large furry demon and it ambled closer.

Sakura kawarimid away in a hurry. Her range wasn't great but the dog had no way of predicting in which direction she would disappear to even if its reaction time was lethally quick. Sweat trickled down her back and it was like the sun was shining on her cheeks. Using this many jutsus in rapid succession was like exercising a long forgotten muscle. It _ached _and sapped the energy from her body, like some part of her had been scooped out and used up.

The dog, delighted at having a new game- _chase Sakura _instead of _chase the ball- _bounded after her. She was too busy gasping for air to curse. When she was happy with the distance, she turned on her heel and _ran. _She raced up the dirt beaten track, took the fence at a flying leap and landed in a textbook perfect roll, almost ripping the shoulder of her dress open on the gravel. No one could know about this. No one could know that she had spent her time running away from a too eager pet. She saw its shadow and fled down the street, not caring if anyone in the other training grounds saw her. Jogging. Yes, jogging was something genin did, wasn't it?

She turned a corner, caught her foot on something warm and toppled with a muted crash.

In disbelief, another dog shook itself off from its sleeping spot and trotted to her. How many stray dogs did Konoha have? And why was she running into all of them? Sakura scrabbled away, mind throwing up images of a dog intelligence system, passing coded messages between their spectacled agents to best intercept their new toy as she fled- she banished the ridiculous thought and patted it once in apology. Its teeth sunk into the hem of her dress and she despaired.

"Hey." She said kindly, kneeling. "Does it taste nice? Is that why you're chewing on it? I know it smells like a strawberry but it shouldn't taste like one so please let it go?" The first dog rounded the corner and every single tendon in her body tensed. "Do you know what I think would taste nice? There's a lovely recipe I've always wanted to try but I've never found the willing ingredients." She glared at it. "Dog meat stew sounds perfect for an autumn night like this, don't you think? Didn't the poet, Yen Song, compare his childhood delicacy to his lover's touch and found his love lacking? If you bite on me, isn't it only fair that I snack on you too?"

The dog released her. Or rather its jaw fell open and she took the opportunity to whirl away.

Haste lent her speed.

When she reached the main gate of the training grounds, she hopped over it lightly and aimed finger guns at the dogs as she landed in a crouch. The dogs seemed to have given up chasing her, falling back with mournful little whines, and barking at each other. If she never saw a dog again it would be too soon.

Sakura wandered home, confused and angry.

When she caught sight of herself in the hallway mirror, the henge was gone. Her father found her touching her cheeks in abstract curiosity wondering how illusions worked.

"Papa." She said before he could say anything. "Do you ever feel like you've been bamboozled thoroughly?"

He blinked. "I take care to do the bamboozling, dear. Has your face offended you?"

"If I say yes?"

He drifted into the kitchen and got out two cups for hot chocolate. "I would be very sad since we share a face, dear."

"And if I say no?"

"Then I'd say to get in line, dear."

"Will you read me poetry until I fall asleep, Papa?"

"Of course, dear. We can move onto the Tea classics starting with Jinmin's _Last Hour on Earth. _It deals with structured order in the face of chaos, how familiar rituals comfort you in the face of oblivion. We can compare it to Sound's _A prison laid in gold _where the writer seeks eternal life because they feel their body is a prison, a story of logical conclusions ending in the loss of everything they hold dear."

"Call me free for I like to fly." Sakura quoted wistfully. "Yet still a man, not ready to die. Look to the brave and the foolish, the bright and the bold. This world is just a prison, laid in gold."

"There's a commonly held perception that the poet was inspired by sunset off the great rivers in the Land of Rivers." Her father coaxed her into a docile ball by stroking her hair while she drank her warm drink. "When the sun shines off the water, the land lights up in golden scars. There's a high plateau with sheer cliffs into Wave near there, they must have climbed to the top, possibly with suicidal intentions, and instead saw the sight which inspired their work."

"I'd like to see that." She said drowsily.

"I'll take you there once." He promised quietly. She didn't know when she fell asleep listening to his low voice calmly recite poetry, explaining the context and their history. Sakura had always loved hearing him speak. It had been fairy tales when she had been young, stories when she grew older, and then Kirai had introduced her to his passion of word-smithing when her calligraphy had been good enough to transcribe for him as he spoke. Her mother had used to joke that Sakura used to spend more time sleeping in Kirai's lap than anywhere else. When their unit had dwindled down to two, this bond had never changed and instead got stronger for the lack of any other familial bonds to form.

…###################################################...

"We'll be finishing off the general knowledge test today." Iruka-sensei clapped his hands. The civilian kids groaned in concert. Mizuki-sensei handed out their papers from yesterday with a calm, collected demeanour, he had been like that all day though. The man must have been upset about something or deep in thought because he barely said a word unless spoken to first, his tone bored and a wry smirk breaking that cool observation.

"You're done." Mizuki sensei said to Sakura, as if he wasn't speaking to her at all. "You don't have to stay."

"I'd like to double check, sensei."

He shrugged, handed her paper back and moved on. There was an awful tense moment where Sasuke passed by Naruto but the boy looked away and held his tongue, slightly red. So, he was capable of learning, Sakura sighed internally and flipped once through her finished paper. Truthfully, she was curious if they would repeat the cipher. All day she had been on edge, paranoia about anyone knowing about her failed late night excursion playing on her nerves likes a koto.

She fiddled with her pen, clicking and unclicking in a nervous tic until Reika hissed at her to _be quiet. _

Just like yesterday, the silver haired sensei tapped his pen against the desk.

Sakura's head shot up. _Unlike yesterday, _he no longer alternated between the tip and the end of the pen. It was a harmless sign of boredom or the cipher had changed. Had what she done made an impact after all?

It wasn't Morse mixed with the filler ciphers from the paper. That got her some unreadable nonsense. She played with substitution ciphers for a bit but got nowhere. It wasn't going to be that simple. The cipher string was so _long _as well…she was writing down letter after letter with no end in sight. _Wait. _She looked carefully at the man and tried her best to find the point where he paused to start the message all over again.

Yeah, as she had thought, he stopped briefly occasionally in the middle of the very long message as well as for a slight bit longer at the end. She lined up the shorter messages on top of each other and they were all the same length. Her heart began to beat faster in excitement. It wasn't one cipher; it was a cyclical cipher. It was one message encoded with one cipher, then again with another, then again and again until the cipher went back to the original one.

She had a hunch that she knew that the plain text was for each…and sure enough, it was the perfect length for BRING BEAUTY'S CORPSE AT MIDNIGHT WHERE HEROES LIE. OUR SECRET CADET. Sakura glowered at the paper; this was cheating. If she knew what the plain text already was, what was the point of encoding it…what was the encoding though…?

Fiddling with it for a minute revealed that it was a poly-alphabetic substitution cipher, she wracked her brain to remember the name of this type of cipher and came up with Vigenère? It was where a keyword was used to encrypt a message instead of a single letter. There was a different keyword for each iteration of the mysterious message. She scribbled down the keywords for each iteration, it was trivial given that she knew the plain text and the ciphertext, so it didn't take long at all.

What followed was a line from a softcore adult novel which graphically skirted the edge of propriety. She squeaked in her seat, hiding her flaming face behind her hands. What- what was this? Why would anyone use _that _as a encoding? Sure, no one in their right minds was going to guess _that _but _whyyy- _weren't they embarrassed? Sakura wailed inside her head.

She had thought it was going to be another message! If she had known this was going to be the result, she wouldn't have bothered!

The tapping evened out to a steady beat. She peeked between her fingers to see Mizuki-sensei covering his mouth as he coughed politely. He must have realised she had figured it out and stopped broadcasting the message. Was he laughing at her? She sent him her best scorching glare for the sheer inappropriateness of that sentence in a school environment and sunk low in her seat. Then, she scrawled PERVERT in large letters across the top of her test, stalked to the desk and handed it in, cheeks still hot.

The man glanced at her paper, the corner of his mouth quirking. "Detention." Thankfully, he said it quietly so the entire class didn't overhear how the teacher's pet landed herself in detention, but gleefully as if testing out the word.

"When?"

"I don't think you need to ask." The man hummed and swung his feet up on Iruka-sensei's desk, the owner of said desk shooting him a glare.

"No."

"No?"

"No." She said flatly. "I'm not acting as entertainment to a dog again."

"You don't need to worry about that." Mizuki-sensei examined his nails but she caught the glitter in his eyes all the same.

Sakura eyed him suspiciously.

"Off you go." The sensei shooed at her. "Let everyone else finish undisturbed, yes? That's a good girl."

Her back went hot and cold in equal measure. She had known Mizuki-sensei was a shinobi but this was the first time his words had such double edged meaning to them. It made her feel very small…what else had she missed about the man?

She edged out of the room, keeping the man in her field of vision at all times but the worst he did was flick chalk at Naruto's head and tell him blandly to stop slouching. Then another to tell him to stop fidgeting. Then another to tell him to stop leaning back in his chair. Then another to tell him to cut the glaring out. Then another-

Naruto's chair hit the ground with a crash. "What can I do, dattebayo?!" The boy howled.

The chalk hit him square in the forehead and Mizuki-sensei told him to stop yelling. Snickers spread through the room and Naruto sat back abashed.

She was so confused. What was the point of last night? Why was _Mizuki-sensei _repeatedly telling her to go to strange, unknown locations at midnight? Even the sight of Sasuke practicing kata surrounded by her classmates couldn't break her out of her contemplative mood- then she realised what she was looking at and how suspicious Ino would get if she failed to respond appropriately to this.

The dark haired boy didn't even acknowledge an additional presence in his fan club but she was grateful. She didn't want the shrewd boy to realise how her full attention wasn't on him and have him think that she was fake. Oh well, things happened, she would find out tonight- she seethed at the detention though, it better not go on her record and blemish it.

**To the people who've read Dance of the Dog God: Haruno Kirai is Aisa's husband from that story. Different parents died in each story to justify the different Sakuras. He's…a very different style of parent, that's for sure; let me know what you guys think of him and the start?**


	2. Chapter 2

**People are going to regret the happenings in this chapter so much later on…Underestimating trainee child soldiers is **_**such **_**a bad idea. In this chapter: Sakura and Ino are cute, Hinata is cuter and Naruto isn't an total idiot. Oh, and meet Takumi : ) . He's not an OC (Or is he).**

Her father had not been happy with her skipping out on their games twice in a row but the worst he did was to let a touch of frost touch his unblinking stare. Sakura blamed it all on Mizuki-sensei hurriedly and he let it go, rolling his eyes.

This time at the dark clearing, there was a man by the memorial stone- tall and thin, almost wraithlike with pale shadows in his hair. Sakura almost didn't recognise her sensei, there was no smile flickering around his mouth and while the man had never been close with any of her classmates, he had at least been _warm. _There was a thousand leagues in this Mizuki-sensei's stare. An icy depth. A dog lay, belly up, over his feet, scratching behind its ear with its hind leg.

Sakura felt such unabashed _fury _at the sight of the dog that she had to stop to breathe- it was _him! He _set the dogs on her last night and it was _his _fault she had been terrorized nearly all the way home-

"Who are you?" She stomped- quietly- into the clearing and crossed her arms over her chest. "Isn't this all too much effort for extra credit?" Sakura touched her cheek where the _henge _prickled over her skin like low level static.

"Can't you allow this old sensei to have fun designing his tests?" Mizuki-sensei said, the corner of his mouth curving, not looking away from the memorial stone. "If it was easy to distinguish yourself, everyone would be the next Rookie of the year." The dog rolled onto its stomach at his feet, pinning Sakura with a canine amusement in its dark eyes.

Now Sakura was 80% sure that Mizuki-sensei would never call upon any Academy Student after their bed-time, not after giving them a furious lecture on healthy habits when he discovered Naruto eating ramen for nearly every single meal. But she was even surer that the man would never call one of his female students into a dark, strange place and then _not _turn up the first time. Iruka-sensei got feral whenever they were in danger and Mizuki-sensei was no slouch himself; every year the Academy dealt with abuse, neglect and the rarer assault cases and it was always the two senseis who dismembered everyone with polite smiles and a bloodthirst a shark would be proud of.

"You're not him." She shook her head, but the unfamiliar surroundings and self-doubt sapped the strength of her conviction.

"Amazing." Mizuki-sensei murmured, still not looking at her, a strange weight to his tone. "Even after four years, you have yet to learn the distinction between the person and the person carrying out their job. Were those high marks just for show, Sakura-chan?"

She opened her mouth but he continued without missing a beat, "Take a seat, we're still waiting for the third."

"No one else should have caught the code." Sakura said, embarrassed and feeling very dumb, as she tucked her legs underneath her on the cold grass. What had she been thinking? Blowing mountains out of molehills, why wouldn't this man be Mizuki-sensei? Who else would design tests at the Academy? They were almost genin now, it made sense that he would relax the rules set down earlier to make sure the Academy children maintained a strict, healthy regimen.

"There were other tests." The man said idly.

Sakura frowned, crossed her arms and tackled the problem from all angles. Other tests? It couldn't have been a traditional test; she would have noticed. If it had been administered when the class was together, had she really missed them? A sense of frustration crawled its way up her chest, but she squashed it momentarily.

The quiet footfall drew her out of her thoughts. An unfamiliar boy stepped into the clearing, eyes flickering over all its inhabitants and the exits, every sinew taut with tension.

Sakura blinked, failing to recognise him.

"Sensei." The boy with the pale river eyes said, relaxing, striding forwards with a cat-like grace. "Am I late? I got held up by some chunin flooding Park Street- Who is this?" Sakura felt herself be sized up, "Kai."

The buzzing static melted away from her skin and the air suddenly turned sweeter, filling with the scent of wildflowers. The boy blinked in apparent recognition before turning to Mizuki-sensei with an aggrieved expression, "You didn't say that this was open to others."

Mizuki-sensei shrugged, "She noticed the code. You know the rules, she's eligible to compete."

"Rules." Sakura said flatly at the same time as the unknown boy clicked his tongue. "Yes, I would like to know more of these rules. Compete in what, for what?"

"You're Haruno Sakura from the year above." The boy declared with narrowed eyes, "You stumbled onto this accidentally? This is too much of a laugh." The derisive tone set her hackles upright. The dog at sensei's feet barked and ambled to the stranger's ankles to demand affection. With a roll of his eyes, he acquiesced.

She narrowed her eyes back. She didn't…recognise him? Then again, she was much more familiar with the girls than the boys but she would think that she would have glimpsed his face somewhere. His face…wasn't particularly forgettable; sandy hair brushed a sharp jaw, eyes like pale river stones- if Sasuke-kun hadn't overshadowed every other boy in the Academy, she was sure that this boy would get attention regularly. Such a pity about his personality.

"Sakura-chan, this is Tenjin Takumi." Mizuki-sensei introduced idly, "Takumi-kun, you know your competition. Let me lay out the picture and clarify any doubts you both might have. A few months ago, the Village introduced a few spots for cadet internships in key departments across the force. The Academy had the right to submit the details of any cadet who they thought might be a good fit."

It was like lightning had struck her; the shock travelled from her crown to her curled toes.

"Both of your profiles, along with others, were flagged for the Intelligence Department." The man laid out the facts. "But you two were the only candidates to pass the preliminary testing stage. But the Department is willing to take on only one intern and have put me in charge of deciding which one. Now, I don't like choosing between my cute students, so I thought of a nice test to decide."

Tenjin grinned, a fierce sharp thing. He leant forward; arms full of dog. "Ne, ne, you should just give the spot to me, sensei. Haruno-senpai's strength is bookwork, not in the field."

"You shut your mouth." Sakura said sharply, not one to get too riled up by taunts from people younger than her but that spot was sore.

He smiled at her. "Is the Intelligence Department really content to take on a fangirl? You might go spill everything to your crush after all, to get some points with him."

Disbelieving fury took her breath away. What right did this stranger have to judge her so quickly? Was having a crush something to be ashamed of? Had she done _anything _to undermine her status as a cadet during the Academy for Tenjin to hint at this obscene scenario? Her determination boiled in her gut, crystallising into sharp, cold shards as she imagined snatching the position out from under the arrogant boy as his smirk collapsed.

"What is the test?" She asked, _just _about keeping her voice level. The boy's eyes danced with mirth.

"Information gathering and reconnaissance under time pressure are important skills for the Intelligence Department." There was something strange about Mizuki-sensei's gaze, "The Hokage has kindly agreed to help me out with my test. The Hokage's Residence is home to many artefacts and is close enough to the Academy for this to be viable. Whoever of you retrieves the Scroll of Seals from the residence without getting caught and leaves it by the memorial stone first gets the place."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "You want us to go against the Hokage?! That place must be crawling with guards."

"It sounds like someone doesn't want the internship." Tenjin said cheerily, "Do I get it automatically if she drops out, sensei?"

The man nodded, "I have faith in both of you. It is a very…different test to what you're used to but I think you're both capable. You have until your team assignment. If you get caught, you also fail. Now, outside of this clearing, I know _nothing _about this assignment, and neither do you if asked. Use your judgement and do your best." Then he arched an eyebrow at the dog in Tenjin's arms getting fussed over, "Get back here, you're too old to pull such tricks."

The pug yapped in denial.

"Well, whatever." Mizuki-sensei murmured, "What do I care. Any questions, you two?"

"Are we allowed to use whatever we want?" Tenjin asked, running a thumb down the pug's neck and spine and it went boneless in his grip, "When you say 'caught', do you mean caught physically with the scroll or just have our identity and our intention caught?"

The white haired man waved a hand, "Use whatever tool you have, this isn't an Academy Test anymore. You have to get serious if you want to pass. And getting compromised in _any _way which negates your ability to carry out the test counts as a fail. Do you think that Intelligence wants an incompetent intern?"

The boy's eyes twinkled, "Can we read the scroll if we have time?"

"If you like." Mizuki-sensei drawled, not very concerned, "Most Jonin struggle with the techniques in that scroll but being ambitious was never a demerit. However, lose the scroll once you have it and the consequences become _much _more serious, especially if you have read it."

"Well, senpai." Tenjin demanded, "Up for it?"

Sakura stirred, drawn out of her buzzing thoughts. They whirled around her head like a swarm of locusts, nibbling at her initial excitement.

"We just… leave it by the memorial stone? What if something happens to it?"

Mizuki-sensei's eyes were lidded. "What do you think could happen to it in the heart of Konoha, Sakura-chan?"

She bit her tongue. Sakura wasn't sure that she liked Mizuki-sensei out of his teaching role.

"If you want to give up, rip this." The man handed her a seal, white ink on white parchment, the characters scribbled upon a labyrinth of ink. Tenjin took his with a disdainful expression and tucked it away quickly. Sakura felt the dried ink under her fingertips and traced the character for _failure. _Her heart hardened.

"No further questions, sensei." She said and Tenjin repeated after her, a beat late.

Mizuki-sensei might have smiled, it was too fleeting, too light, too distant for the brief flicker to be classified as anything concrete. "Remember children. This talk _never _happened. Continue your Academy life as normal or Iruka-sensei and I will be very upset." The man vanished in a swirl of leaves, the dog dissolving with him.

Tenjin brushed the leaves off his shorts, casting an innocent grin in her direction. "Shall we return, senpai?"

"You do what you like." Sakura told him, chilly as a grave, "It has nothing to do with me."

"Ah." The boy drew out the sound, "Did I cross the line earlier? I do apologise, I call things exactly as I see them. I could be more diplomatic, but you're going to lose, senpai." Tenjin smiled, disregarding her building temper.

"I wasn't aware you knew me well enough to make such a judgement." Sakura smiled back, emulating a shark. "Considering you're a rather forgettable background character in my life."

He spread his hands, "Should you really be admitting you paid less attention at the Academy than you should have? Say, senpai, how did you stumble onto this?"

She whirled to face him, "Yes! You knew about this before, _how_?"

"How are you not embarrassed to ask that question?" He drawled and Sakura flushed. "You didn't notice the people tailing the Academy to ensure that the senseis' profiles were accurate? Or did you think they were there for Uchiha-senpai? He can't have _everything _under the sun."

Sakura wished that Sasuke had passed the test instead of Tenjin. Then she'd have less of a headache. Then that highlighted the tip of the iceberg of unanswered questions and she wanted a hot cup of tea.

"The scroll of seals." She said quietly, "That's…"

His gaze was scornful. "Sensei said he had permission. Do you not believe him? Are you questioning his motives?"

"Nothing like that." And now there was frost glimmering with the laughter. Tenjin Takumi was a boy fond of jokes only he knew, it seemed. Any desire to ask him questions dried up as exhaustion washed over her.

"The dog knew you." She remembered, that had struck her as odd. It had never spent any time around the Academy and it was clearly associated with Mizuki-sensei.

"Pakkun?" Tenjin cocked his head, "Ya. I babysat him when he was younger."

There was _so much _she didn't know about Mizuki-sensei. As they walked side by side, she could feel the faintest hint of the sensei's chakra in Tenjin's presence. A remnant of the henge, perhaps? It raised the hair on the back of her neck, sweet and cold and sharp all at once, like the air before a lightning strike.

She didn't know what was going on but Sakura wasn't comfortable with any of it.

"This is me." She said at a junction very far from her actual turn just to get rid of the arrogant boy. "Let's have a good competition."

"Yes." The boy said, strangely. "Let us be rivals for the next week. I wish I could say it was nice meeting you Haruno-senpai."

"Same."

….########################################################...

Mizuki-sensei was an excellent actor. Sakura had to marvel at how the man carried on teaching without the slightest indication that he had carried out an enigmatic meeting with two of his students at midnight the night previous. She really had to wonder what ticked behind his friendly persona, the Academy senseis were long more associated with teachers than _chunin _in her mind and this glimpse into the man's skillset was humbling.

Currently the man was wiping the blackboard clean while Iruka-sensei prepped for a lecture on projectile physics, slightly distracted by Naruto's latest prank on Kiba. The boy laughed uproariously as Reika tutted loudly behind Sakura.

"That's it!" The man lost his patience, "Go sit next to Sakura-chan! Perhaps you can learn something from her." She sat at the very front so the boy's face turned interesting colours at being told to sit next to his crush but in front of the class. Sakura tucked her extreme displeasure away; Naruto had a way of disrupting the class which was _not _beneficial for her concentration and him being right next to her did not bode well. But arguing was moot so she kicked her bag aside as the blond dragged his scuffed bag into the empty seat.

"Hello, Sakura-chan." He said glumly. "Isn't it great we're partners?" The boy cheered up remarkably quickly, "See, I knew Iruka-sensei supported us-"

"The only thing he supports is a peaceful classroom, Naruto." Sakura squashed his line of thought, removing her papers from his half of the desk. "Your antics cause me to miss even one word and I will _never _go on a date with you as long as I live."

His jaw clicked shut. "Got it."

"You also dropped this on the yard yesterday." She slid a replacement for the lighter she had destroyed across the desk, "I don't want to know what you were doing with it, but smoking will give you bad breath."

Sakura was privy to see him turn in curiosity, only to have that morph into a faint expression of intrigued disbelief as he took in the lighter. "The yard?"

"Yes." She turned a fresh page, "Now, be quiet and listen. This is important."

He smiled and tucked it away. "You have magic hands, Sakura-chan. After a day in your care, it looks almost new." She froze for a second, not having considered that he would have been observant enough to pick up that the nicks and scratches weren't the same. "Can you keep my heart for me too? It's so tired of being abused-"

"Naruto!"

As the chalk bounced off the boy's forehead, Sakura dismissed the nagging feeling that something was wrong. It was just an opening for a flirt, nothing more. She could _feel _her standing drop with Sasuke-kun. Gritting her teeth, her next written words had more force behind them than usual.

Akamaru passed by her feet, wet and bedraggled with golden glitter, and sneezed.

Sakura should really become more of a cat person.

At the end of the lecture, she approached Iruka-sensei with questions she didn't need the answers to and sweet talked him into letting her carry his books as he went back to the administrative office.

"You'll be late for shuriken practice." The man warned her helplessly.

"But I had more questions." Sakura made her eyes as wide as possible, pressing her mouth into more of a cute pout. Information was more important than Sasuke-kun, despite how sacrilegious that sounded. The man folded like wet cards before his favourite student.

The Academy's administrative office doubled as the Mission Dispatch office. The Hokage often sat there, smoking his pipe, overlooking his shinobi as they filtered in and out, handing in reports, catching up with friends. If he was there, his guards were too and his residence was hopefully empty.

He had a grandson, didn't he? Sakura had no idea where her ruling family lived but she hoped it wasn't in the Hokage's residence or she would be in so much trouble.

"Say, sensei." She hopped along beside Iruka-sensei, ignoring the fond and indulgent smiles the other shinobi sent them at this familiar sight. "Do you have to pass a test to be able to teach us too?"

"That's right." He smiled down at her, filtering through messy mission reports in his hands. "They check that we know everything we're meant to, just so we don't teach you incorrectly. The Jonin senseis would have our heads otherwise."

"Oh." She popped the sound somehow, having learnt that trick from Ino. "So, what did you do before, sensei?"

He chuckled, "Curiosity about old men, Sakura-chan?"

"You're not old." Sakura wondered. "Why do men consider themselves old if they're over twenty eight? My dad said the same thing to me the other day. Does he look old to you?"

Iruka-sensei coughed. "Ah. No. Haruno-san has no need to worry." Her father had been highly critical of the Academy's lack of arts education the last time he had been here. Iruka-sensei might still be scarred from that encounter so she took pity on him. "I'm not-" He coughed again, "Me? I'm a special case amongst the Academy teachers, I got promoted and immediately applied to be a teacher. Usually, the career track is to gain some experience first but they accepted me so who am I to complain."

"Oh! You must be pretty awesome, sensei." She said genuinely, "What kind of careers do people hold before applying, then? Say, Mizuki-sensei?"

"Thinking of joining us?" Iruka-sensei sounded like he was fighting a smile.

"We're taught so much about the general promotion path but I was wondering what the different ranks specialised in." Sakura shrugged.

He hummed, "Don't go spreading this around, but I was capture focused as a genin and I was promoted for that. Barrier seals, tracking, the like. Mizuki? He focused on shuriken-jutsu and weapon handling. You'll be hard pressed to find a better shot than him in the Academy. But specifically, I don't think he had a particular chunin class. He ran more missions than me, that's for certain. Ah-"

They reached the administrative office, the man holding the door for her. An instant hush fell over the office as the chunin sensei arched an eyebrow at the jonin suddenly scribbling madly on their reports and fixing their crumpled papers. Good to know that the Academy sensei's reputation went _far _beyond intimidating just cadets.

"Iruka-kun. Good, you're here." Purple smoke curled from the Hokage's pipe. The tanned and weathered man sat cross legged on a tatami mat, painted with cranes, level with the missions dispatch desk. The wood groaned with files and binders. "Lecture go well?" A monkey was carved into the butt of his pipe, and his robes were richly made but plainly coloured. Sakura looked at the most powerful man in the village and how he projected the image of a kindly grandfather; if all veteran shinobi were capable of flicking on amiable personalities at will…

"As well as it could." Iruka-sensei took the books from her, "Well, Sakura-chan? Do you agree?"

She smiled at them both, "Yes! I learnt a lot."

There were no visible guards. Of course, there wouldn't be, Jonin surrounded the Hokage in this building. It was insulting to insinuate that the _Hokage _would be in danger from his own people in his own village, or that he couldn't see it coming and defend himself.

"Back to shuriken throwing. Tell Mizuki I kept you if he asks." Her sensei told her before accepting a piece of paper stained by blood and grass, and immediately started yelling about legible writing and standards.

"You are in the pinnacle of your youth today, Umino-san!"

"Maa. Would you like Gai to rewrite it?"

"So hip, my rival. I can't even refuse such cool a request!"

Sakura turned to see the two strangest men she had ever seen. The one on the right was taller, dark hair cut in a neat bowl, dressed from neck to ankles in green spandex with orange warmers around his limbs. His grin was blinding. The one on the left slouched, only one eye visible through a combination of a mask, crooked Hitai-ate and flyaway silver pale hair which looked like it had been electrocuted.

"It is not his mission for Maito-san to rewrite, Hatake-san!" Sensei was on a fine roll.

"Yes." The man admitted shamelessly, "But look. My arm's broken. I have a doctor's note to avoid moving too much, are you going to make me rewrite my report after I went through so much?" He waved a piece of paper in front of the angry chunin's face, too quick for Sakura to read.

"Why are you out of the hospital?!" Iruka-sensei screeched.

Hatake-san's lone eye crinkled. "Because handing in a report is one of the most important parts of the mission and must be carried out with due diligence. What kind of shinobi would I be if I left it off? No. No amount of injuries would stop me from handing in my report even though they can stop me from rewriting them."

Was he…flattering or riling up Iruka-sensei? Sakura watched in wonder.

"Then why are you three hours late?!"

"Maa. You are cruel, Umino-san. Look, at the doctor's note properly."

Her sensei abated slightly, abashed. "What kind of doctor would discharge you?"

"Oh, that." The man said shamelessly and lightly, "Different doctor. Can I go now?"

Iruka-sensei opened his mouth to yell- The man noticed her staring in aghast admiration and winked subtly and vanished in a swirl of smoke. The man he left behind swung his fist at the ceiling, eyes shiny, crying about a hip and cool attitude. Sakura was unsure how a hundred laps around the village factored into it.

Were…these men alright?

"Sakura-chan." Iruka-sensei pinched the bridge of his nose, "The day you believe that _this,_" He waved the bedraggled report. Sakura thought she saw chew marks, "Is an acceptable document to hand in, I'll revoke your headband myself."

Maito-san boomed with laughter, handing over a piece of crisp paper so neatly pressed that the edges were razor straight. The green ink was a little unusual but the writing was beautiful and each row was the same length. Sensei almost started crying. The Hokage blew smoke rings, chuckling.

Sakura beat a hasty retreat in the face of all this crazy.

….#########################################################...

"Collecting information, senpai?"

Sakura looked up on the way back to her class to find Tenjin relaxing in a tree, arm in a cast.

"What did you do to your arm between last night and now?" She asked in surprise.

He straight up smirked, finger to his mouth, "Don't let on that you saw me that recently. Did you know that exceptions are made for attendance if you have injuries? We only have a week, senpai. Find out anything fun?"

With unease, she noted that his perch was high enough to allow him view of all the major exits as well as the top half of the Hokage's residence further down the street.

"That doesn't concern you." She said, semi-sharply.

"I figured out the frequency of the guard rotation." He half sang, eyes on the distant prize.

"_Congratulations._"

"Such a sharp tone." He mused, "I could almost think that you don't like me. Which one of us is sharing information, again?"

"This is not a teamwork test." She frowned.

He grinned at her, half sharp, half all teeth. "You sure about that?"

"There's one spot." She pointed out, "There's one internship spot. You've _already _declared your intention to defeat me. Why do you want to work together?"

"Oh, I don't." He sounded surprised that she had drawn that conclusion. "But drawing conclusions about what kind of test the Intelligence department is giving us seems rather stupid." His eyes flicked to the side, "Mizuki-sensei beckons. You'd better hop to it, senpai. Don't want to break your pristine reputation of only having eyes for Uchiha-senpai. I know I can never match up."

Sakura hissed at him, cheeks red with fury and embarrassment, to which he just laughed.

Ino had noticed. Sakura knew for certain as she slid into line, waiting for the third target, feeling the Yamanaka's cool eyes on her shoulder blades. Mizuki-sensei had let her off even before she had begun to explain, friendly nature back in full force.

"Did you hear?" Hitomi asked her, "They're doing a live action adaption of _Dark Moon._ I hope they can do Benihime justice this time, Neyagawa butchered her interpretation of the character with that _abomination._"

"You know full well that people have no idea how to portray kunoichi other than seductresses." Sakura told her mildly. "You'd think they'd go talk to one at least."

The girl sniffed disdainfully. "Of course not. Why ask a woman about her lifestyle when you could have fanservice. Ooh, Sasuke-kun is up!" They cheered at the correct moment as Sasuke hit the target dead centre, then went back to talking normally, "They're bringing in some Kumo specialist on weaponry so I think the visuals should be period appropriate. I can't tell you how irritating it is to see a Fuma shuriken in the warring states unless the Fuma clan are associated with it. They'll get the kimono layers correct to the number of layers but use jutsus which haven't been invented yet. Honestly."

"Dad's banned me from watching any historical dramas in the house." Sakura admitted, "He says that me screaming at the show gives him a headache."

"Your dad?" Hitomi said, incredulous. "The one who walked out of the room when _the Legend of Shu Bai _changed Naotumi's motivation from political misgivings over Ito's rule to revenge when he took over the Aketain Court? I don't think he'll have any tolerance for a watered down show."

"To be fair." Sakura allowed, "I think he wrote his thesis on the rise and fall of the Aketain Court before Iron absorbed them and destroyed the Fuji clan's influence. It struck a bit too close to home. He made me read the Yama Diaries, you know the ones that random Suna historian translated before going missing in a marsh, cover to cover after that disaster."

Hitomi hooted. "That thing? It's dry as dust. Kaori-sensei read parts of it out in the week you were ill. Even she looked bored."

"Which part? I haven't collated my notes for her yet."

"Uh." The girl waved a hand, "Fuji Kiyoko arrived in the Jou-An prefecture, at Sechuji Castle as Hana Hidemori's hostage as part of the third ceasefire in the Northern rebellion. She wanted us to take note of Fuji-sama's mannerisms when her life was in enemy hands."

"Wasn't it a very polite version of _'come try me if you're man enough' _and Hidemori backed down without a fight?" Sakura wracked her brain, dreadfully amused. "The text doesn't really make that clear with all the prose. They got married later, did you know?"

"Really?"

"Ya. She got disowned for it. Her sister assassinated her at her child's first year celebration and in retaliation, Hidemori burned down Gekko's mountain retreat- Fuji Sumiya was his wife- with their children still inside. The Gekko clan was annihilated over the next few years."

"The Warring States might have been bloody as all hell, but you have to admit that that was romantic." Hitomi said, slightly dreamily, "If I get assassinated, I'd want my husband to do the same." Sakura didn't miss the way her eyes flicked to Sasuke. Her smile strained.

She didn't mention the way Hidemori had died, slaughtered at peace talks between the Jian and Aketain courts, the way his death had paved the way for Naotumi to topple the tyrannical Ito, the way Fuji Toyotomi had handed over Hana Hinata's body double when Batou Kaizen had demanded his head, the way all the rest that had resulted in a very, _very _bloody tapestry of history. How many years had Kiyoko and Hidemori been together in the end?

Hitomi's first two shuriken struck the target in the top left, the girl releasing a bit too early. The third missed as she overcompensated, the fourth bounced due to the weapon striking the target at an awkward angle, but the rest lay in a scattered bunch around the middle three rings.

"Show me your hands." Sakura ordered as the girl stepped back in line, wincing and rubbing her fingers. "Hm. Either wrap bandages to protect your fingers or file down the insides of your shuriken. Look, you're cutting yourself and they're not healing by the next day. You'll develop bad habits if you're forcibly stopping yourself from flinching every time you throw."

"Thanks, Sakura." Hitomi said, gratefully, "Yeah, I'll try that."

"I've got this yarrow and calendula ointment I use for cuts like these." Ino cut in from nowhere, taking in the mildly injured girl's hands with a critical eye. "You need to take more care of yourself, Hitomi. I'll send the recipe over tonight. Reika, don't think I don't see those bags. Go to bed earlier, exhausting yourself a week before graduation will do nothing to help your chances."

"No honey?" Sakura asked in surprise, letting the girl go.

"If I listed every ingredient used, I would be talking for an hour." The blonde flipped her hair out of her face.

Reika yelled over from the next line, "I will defeat Sakura in literature, I'm so close!"

Ino snorted, exchanging flat looks with Sakura, "Get up earlier then but don't give her an easy victory because you fell asleep in the exam. You got a problem with that added challenge, Forehead?"

"Bring it, Pig." Sakura said cheerfully. "I'm used to you using other people to drag me down as you're incapable of it yourself." Hitomi hissed, looking between the feuding girls like she had been caught in a turf war.

Ino said faintly, "Be careful of that pride of yours. We wouldn't want you to suffer a nasty fall."

"Mm. Yes." She agreed, "I'll take your expert opinion on the matter of bruised pride."

Ino's eyes were slits of blue. Vicious amusement shifted behind that glare before the girl gestured to the free target. "Don't hold up the line, Forehead. Do your best, ne, we'll _all _be watching." With a curl of unease, she became very aware of Sasuke waiting his turn to practice again, dark eyes roving over his classmates' technique.

"You'll do fine." Hitomi rushed to assure her, the hidden cutie. Relief shone in her voice that Sasuke hadn't seen her performance.

None of Sakura's shots missed. She hadn't missed since the second week of training, ever since Ino had taken her aside after a humiliating session and shown her how to put her arm into the throw. She smiled at Hinata as they stepped back in unison, the shy heiress smiling back sweetly. The Yamanaka sniffed and turned away to drift back to her own line, unable to mock Sakura for her performance. Was that all she had come here for?

She caught her by the elbow, "Hey, have dinner with me tonight."

"Busy."

"Please?"

Ino sighed noisily, glancing at her. "Make it a late one." She snapped, before walking off. Sakura grinned, mood uplifted.

"Ne, Hinata-chan." She sidled up to the Hyuuga, "I really liked your sidestep in your spar earlier. That wasn't standard, was it? It was so…elegant." She tried to copy the move herself, like she was floating and redirecting in the middle of a small hop, but she couldn't twist her whole body on the landing like Hinata had done, sweeping from one side of the ring to the other in one smooth, twisting movement, fingers at Shino's neck in half a breath.

Out of all the girls, it was Hinata who _crushed _them at everything pertaining to be a lady. Sakura didn't think that the Hyuuga needed to change one part of herself to excel in the graceful arts, every movement breathed refinement. Sakura was too rough, Ino too domineering, Reika too sharp, Hitomi too clumsy, Hiyori too willing to brawl- the list of their flaws was long and numerous…Sakura would dearly love to pick Hinata's brain for tips at some point.

"It was adapted for the Academy from the Jyuuken, Sakura-san." Hinata's voice was soft, gaze not rising above Sakura's cheekbones. In the shadows, the girl's eyes seemed to almost glow softly, like twin moons in her face. They moved the pretty girl straight out of the label of classical beauty and into the category of bewitching. Sakura _might _have a bit of a crush. But it was alright, all the girls did. Everyone had crushes on the Hyuuga, they were stupidly beautiful.

"You might like to take up dancing," Hinata suggested as Mizuki-sensei gave the order to move back inside. The first droplets of rain trickled down her cheek before the skies burst open, drenching the entire class as they laughed and shoved each other into the damp earth. "The first Jyuuken was adapted from the mikos' dances. You might really take to it. Not the dances they teach us in the Academy, the older religious dances." She giggled, "I don't think it'll go well with your punching, though. Nara-san shouldn't have said that."

Sakura flushed. Shikamaru shouldn't have said what he had but she shouldn't have decked him in the face for it. In her defence, she had been too distracted with planning for her test to notice that he'd dodged the wrong way from her feint and _into _her punch.

Ino swept past imperially, "I want aubergines."

"We don't have any aubergines." Sakura replied on instinct.

"Does it look like I care?" The girl asked flatly, before smiling at Hinata, "Doing well, Hinata-chan?"

The Hyuuga muffled her laugh into her scarf. "Yes, thank you for asking, Ino-san."

"So formal." Ino's smile turned a little helpless, "You make me feel guilty. Hey, you should join us for brunch sometime, you okay with that, Forehead?"

Brunch was for socializing after all. Dinner was private. Sakura shrugged, "Sounds lovely to me."

The tips of Hinata's ears turned red and both girls politely ignored it. She was so cute. "I wouldn't want to intrude…"

"We can't hold it at mine then." Sakura mused to Ino, "The Hyuuga are fairly strict about the civilian quarter, aren't they? Dad won't mind cutting them down to size but we'd put Hinata-chan in a bad spot."

"Oh, but please, I want to see that." Ino said, face straight, "We can have it at the Yamanaka compound. Eleven on Saturday, don't forget! After brunch, some of the gang is coming over with some notes so we can go over some stuff, you're welcome to stay for that as well."

Sakura cocked her head, "I might have to bail on that this time."

"Right before graduation?" Ino arched an eyebrow like she was insane. "What's more important? I thought we agreed not to bother Sasuke-kun during exam season to impact his performance."

"Aww. Did you want me there?" Sakura grinned. "I knew it. You miss me."

"Who'd miss you?" Ino sniffed, "I can't get rid of you. Look at this, Hinata-chan, I had the chance to do things for myself tonight but here she goes, taking it up."

They had managed to get Hinata to laugh out loud at their squabbling by the time they reached the classroom which she counted as a success.

…..##########################################################...

Haruno Kirai didn't blink as his daughter rushed into the house in the manner of a small storm. A line of thrown coats and scarves followed in her wake as she knocked over the coat stand, the strap of her bag catching on a table drawer, sending it flying open and sending her face first into the carpet.

"Ah. My daughter." He said, dry as dust, closing his book with a snap. "The perfect ninja."

Sakura peeled her face off the ground, counting herself lucky that she hadn't fallen on the spilled shuriken, "Do we have any aubergines?"

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

"Yes, we have a third of an aubergine left, no, we don't have enough if Ino-chan is coming over tonight. Is a new show premiering today?" He wandered out of the joining room, folding some sheets of paper with razor sharp creases. Sakura blinked, not used to seeing him out of traditional clothes but the mauve suit brought out the deeper undertones in his hair and sharpened his features.

"Did something happen?"

He waved a hand, "My old partners want me back in the game. One of them recently married so I had to put some effort in." Her father smiled, ruffling her hair. "Now that you might finally be independent, it's time for me to go back to work, dear. Don't hold it against me too much."

She shrugged, "Why would I?"

"Really?" He asked, tone light, "Is this the same girl who cried every time I left the room when she was younger-"

"_Alright!" _Sakura yelped, beating a hasty retreat, "I'm going to go get some more aubergines. Leave the cooking to me." She fled with red cheeks to the man's laughter, then poked her head back in. "Do you want more gelatine? We can make those clear flower cakes next weekend?"

"Why not." Her father agreed, dark eyes laughing.

….#################################################...

Sakura ended up getting more than she had intended to, picking up some plum sauce and other groceries as she tallied up what was running low.

"Ah. Found you, dattebayo."

She _jerked_ back-

When had anyone gotten so close? Naruto caught the packet of fish she had dropped and held it out to her with an apology. Heart thumping, she stared at him. Was this the result of all of his pranking? A stealth so overlooked that she hadn't even realised it existed.

"Let's be quiet," He said, smiling, finger to his lips, "The old man shopkeeper doesn't quite like me. I may have put paint in his shampoo a few years ago but he's too stingy to let it go."

"As he should!-" She cried, incredulous at his daring.

His brow creased, "_Quieter, _Sakura-chan. No one is watching us, there's no need to yell at me to save your face for Sasuke-teme."

Her breath froze in her lungs, the sharp constriction in her chest surprisingly like guilt. Was it that obvious? Well…sometimes he was genuinely irritating so Sakura couldn't be blamed fully for that one…

"I'm not dating you." She said automatically.

"No? One day when I'm Hokage you'll regret you passed it up then, dattebayo." The blond cocked his head, not very concerned. "Nah, I wanted to give this back to you." He held up the lighter and her chest constricted further.

"What are you on about. That's your lighter." She said but it didn't sound right to even her ears.

He half smiled, then turned it to show her the unmarked base. "I write my initials on my things, Sakura-chan. Nice effort though. What did you do with mine?"

Well. _Shit. _She sighed and accepted the lighter, flipping it with a hand as she tried to think of an excuse.

"Sorry, Naruto." She said honestly, cringing a little inside, "But I threw it away."

He nodded, "But not because you disapproved of smoking." The boy said lightly, far too observant for her liking, "Or you wouldn't have given me a replacement. Hey, hey, hey, can I tell you something?"

She nodded hesitantly and his smile was as false as the plastic in his shirt. "Don't you dare pity me. Not you. Not anyone from the Academy. Everything I have, I've scrounged together with all _my _effort. You don't get to decide to steal one, throw it away, and then replace it without telling me, dattebayo."

Sakura bit her lip and nodded, shame making her feel tiny.

He watched her with a gaze sharper than anything else she remembered from the loud prankster.

"Now. Tell me the whole thing."

"I can't." _She wouldn't. _

"You will. If you don't have time now, then it's fine to tell me another time." He promised, "Don't I deserve to know what you destroyed my property for?" Then he frowned, "Was it important?"

"Obviously." Sakura rand a hand down her face, cursing the fact that she hadn't thought to stop the test another way. "I am _very _sorry. It was the only thing I could think of."

Naruto sighed, the tension leaving him. "You know if you had asked, or even told me afterwards, I'd have given it to you as a gift." He said wryly, "I don't like you pretending what you did was okay, but I'll forget it if you swear never to do it again."

She nodded, "Of course. Please accept the lighter as a replacement for what I destroyed."

He glanced at it, the edge of his smile crooked, "Nah. It's too nice to replace what you threw away. You can pay me back by talking to me more in class, how about it? I'm so terribly bored, it'd be nice to have someone to chat with." Then, his eyes narrowed as Sakura struggled not to react to that statement, "It was something about that test, wasn't it? That was when you took it and the fire alarm went off after. Sakura-chan, we'll awaken your prankster spirit yet, did it irritate you that much?"

At her wide gaze, he laughed and rocked back on his heels, hands behind his head. "I'm stupid, yeah, but I've planned more pranks than everyone in the Academy put together. One thing leads to another, it's not hard to put together."

Sakura struggled for words. She…might have gravely wronged Naruto by assuming him incapable of basic inference. Was she really aiming to pass the Intelligence test with this level of skill? Tenjin might as well just take it from her, this was too embarrassing. Taking his hand, she placed the lighter there.

"Take it as an apology then." She said, quietly. "And yeah, I owe you. I won't ignore you from now on, but I'm still not letting it get in the way of listening to sensei, mind."

He watched her carefully, "I don't think you realise how much it hurts when you lose something you worked hard to get." He said, but not unkindly, "And that's fine, no one's telling you to pay for everything when you have parents who love you. But you've got to think about everyone else, not everyone is as lucky, dattebayo. This time it was a lighter, but it could have been something sentimental or expensive."

"I'm sorry." Shame and guilt curdled in her stomach.

"Yeah I know." He ran a hand through his hair, "No one who wasn't sorry would try to replace the thing they threw away with a _nicer _version. You're really, really smart, yeah? I know you are; you ace Iruka-sensei's insane quizzes all the time. Just think a little bit more." But he tucked the lighter away and some of the pressure on her chest eased at his acceptance of her apology.

Faced with her depression, he tried to cheer her up, "Look at me being all mature. Wouldn't sensei be proud? Hah, I should tell him- _I won't, I won't, don't worry, I was joking-_" He blurted, darting forwards, hands waving uselessly as her head jerked up aghast.

"I'm not asking you to not tell him because I don't want him to know I took your stuff." She wiped at her face, "But he can't know about me setting off the fire alarm."

"Yeah, sure, you did me a favour with that as well." Naruto agreed easily. Then he jerked back, visibly biting back a swear as the shop keeper turned the corner, attracted by the loud noise.

"You set off a glitter bomb in my cashier! Get back here, clean it up!"

"Go jump down a well," Naruto muttered, pulling on a fingerless glove with his teeth, hands flying through seals. "I'll see you later, dattebayo. Smile, Sakura-chan, it's a happy moment when you make a new friend." The boy vanished in a puff of smoke and a stack of frozen pizzas.

The man stared incredulously at Sakura, who he knew to be a polite child, "You know him?"

"Desk partner." She replied blandly and he glowered.

"Watch out for wires when opening your drawer. Damn bratty ninjas and their vanishing tricks…"

_But you've got to think about everyone else, not everyone is as lucky, dattebayo._

"Wait." She sighed as he did her bill. "Include the charges for cleaning up to my bill, and don't ask him for it when you see him next." Sakura supposed it was partially her fault that the boy had set off a distraction so he could talk to her alone.

He looked flummoxed.

"Don't question it." She snapped, and he rushed to comply.

….###############################################################...

"Your cooking is great, Kirai-san." Ino chewed on her aubergine dish with relish, hand over her mouth, eyes closed. "Sorry you had to push your dinner back so late, I needed to help mother with something."

Her father had never minded Ino hanging around their house like a blonde parasitic leech. Sakura didn't know whether he viewed it as feeding an occasional pet Sakura sometimes dragged home or if he even noticed that their schedule had to change to comply with a third, but he seemed to view the girls fighting in front of him with a sort of vague, mystified air like _what even are teenage girls? _

"Sakura cooked, little reader." Sakura regretted telling him what the Yamanakas were famous for but Ino thought it was a hoot and a half. He put more tomatoes in their bowls absent-mindedly. "A bit of variety makes life interesting, don't worry about it. You did not have to rush the job, I hope?"

"But you taught her to cook, so this food being delicious is all on you." Ino told him seriously, not willing to give Sakura even an iota of credit for rushing out and preparing her favourite dish at essentially last minute. Kirai grinned, charmed. "And no, no," Her hair bounced as she shook her head. "It was just some trouble with a local officer who didn't understand that the Yamanaka flower shop doesn't fall under civilian management even if it's in the civilian district."

Her father propped his chin on the back of his fingers, eyes half lidded. "Hm. The tax collector for the Park District? Yes, I'd heard the previous had been retired. Is the new one no good?"

"No good?" Ino nearly flung her chop sticks down, temper flaring, "He's an _idiot. _It took him so long to grasp a simple concept! The way he was talking to mother, like she couldn't _break _him in half with one hand, like she didn't understand the accounts and that he was _entitled _to something he had no authority over-"

She cut herself off, inhaling sharply, "Sorry, Kirai-san. Still a bit recent."

"Well." Her father said, languid and lazy. "We can't have that."

Ino worked herself into a fury, "_I _don't understand how a shop works because I'm too young? Please, I have more hours in that place than my parents combined! Don't they have jobs?"

"Don't worry, I'll get an account for you." Kirai sipped at his tea and Ino stopped dead.

"You'd do that?" She blinked, "My parents can't do much, it'll be seen as bullying the civilians, but you…"

"I am not ecstatic at the thought of an imbecilic official, myself." The man said, "Weak willed is manageable, stupidity is not. What's the point of having influence if you can't use it to make life easier for your daughter's cute friends?"

"We're not friends!" Ino pouted, picking at her sweet bun. "What are we, Forehead? Rivals at the last count?"

"That was before you rejected me." Sakura chewed on her beans. "You are _nothing _to me now."

"Oh, yeah." Ino turned back to an amused Haruno Kirai. "You might have a cat soon."

"Is that another of my daughter's veiled cries for a little sibling?" He asked with interest.

"No!" Sakura interjected a bit too loudly, ears burning, and dumped soup in both of their bowls, "Shut up and stop gossiping. Eat."

Her father chuckled, "Are you ready for the graduation exam, little reader? Sakura was walking me through the process the other day. It's a bit intensive for eleven year olds, isn't it?"

Ino swallowed, looking thoughtful. "As I understand it, it's been softened over the years as people understood that pushing us to our limits before we physically or mentally mature could have lasting repercussions. It might sound fairly intense, but chakra helps a lot with strength, speed, stamina management etc so it's not that bad. Most kids struggle with the theory, jutsu and weapons far more than the physical aspect."

His eyes grew a touch colder. "I can't say I approve of half trained children capable of incredible damage being approved before they are ready."

Both girls shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"What's the reason for the suit, Kirai-san?" Ino asked brightly, changing the subject quickly. "You look very sharp!"

"Maybe it's because you're a guest." Her father said, clearly not serious in the slightest. Ino giggled all the same while Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Dad wore a suit to the theatre with Mum last time they went." The blonde admitted, "I'd forgotten how _young _he looks when he leaves his hair loose, Forehead. It's really clear where I get my face from," Ino preened, "He was getting flirted with all night. Mum was so mad…"

The Yamanaka parents were in the middle of a long drawn out struggle which would either end with them bound tightly together or divorcing in an ugly, possessive war. Also, one of the prime reasons Sakura dragged Ino home every so often like a stray cat, but she didn't need to know that.

"Hey, you should come for lunch sometime, Kirai-san. They both like you."

"That will not last." Kirai assured her.

Ino blinked, thrown. Sakura swallowed a laugh.

"Speaking of which." Kirai said, pointing. "How do I save it, Ino-chan?" Their gazes landed on a half dead pot of Sweet William.

Ino leapt up, "I sold this to you two days ago, Forehead! How did it end up like this?!" She clasped a hand over her mouth at the shriek but neither of the Harunos were particularly bothered. They knew what Ino was like. She fussed over the brown leaves, jabbing fingers into the soil and muttering under her breath, curling around it like a protective mother.

Ino glared at the father-daughter duo. "Neither of you can be trusted with my children."

"You sold your child to me." Sakura pointed out mildly.

"In hopes that you'd take responsibility and care for it!" Ino ranted, holding it out. "What did you _do?"_

She looked at her father. Her father looked at the ceiling. "I watered it at the appropriate times."

"Did you talk to it?" Ino asked suspiciously. "Introduce it to your home? Make it feel welcome?"

It was rare seeing her father caught utterly off guard. He looked at her for reassurance that the things Ino had mentioned weren't part of a normal gardener's manual.

"These are chakra grown plants!" The Yamanaka half-shrieked at both of them, "You removed it from the chakra dense atmosphere it was used to and into your home where it's probably struggling to adjust. Who _let you two _raise pets?"

"That's for Mokuton grown plants!" Sakura protested. "Not….house plants."

Ino's face went very, very flat. "And where do you think we get our cuttings from?" She waved the plant threateningly, "Doesn't it feel different from a normal Sweet William? Doesn't it? You _utterly _dense Forehead, stick to your histories and your calligraphy- _no, no, no, _I'm not mad at you." She crooned at the pot suddenly, cradling it. "Your owners are just very silly. Imagine thinking you were a normal plant. Yes. _Imagine._" She glared.

"You could have warned me." Sakura protested, weakly.

Ino glared harder, "Do I need to warn you not to jump off buildings without chakra too?"

At this point it was better to shut up and take the blistering lecture than it was to argue.

Ino was still miffed when they finished their meal and the girls retreated to Sakura's room.

"What's going on?" The blonde asked, still sulky, flopping on Sakura's bed and burying her face in the pillow. "You've been acting weird these last few days."

"Have I?" Sakura asked, idly, scribbling on a piece of paper. _What do you know of Mission Intelligence? _"It's just stress, you know." She chucked it at the girl's head to draw her attention when she scoffed loudly into the pillow. Ino dragged her head up, eyebrow raised, caught sight of the message and went quite still.

She tilted her hand this way and that, "I guess I can understand that. It'll all be over soon enough anyway, and our class will split for good. I think I'll miss quite a few of the people."

Sakura scribbled underneath it. _They gave me and someone else a test to determine who gets the cadet internship._

Ino sucked in a breath, eyes flitting between the sentence and Sakura, startled.

"We have a week left. It's hard to imagine anything big happening in that time." The Yamanaka said carefully.

"Don't tell the senseis that." Sakura wrote _Mizuki-sensei, _underlined the name three times, drew a sad face, then gave her best guess for the characters in Tenjin's name. "You know they'll come up with some sort of ridiculous competition." At the last word, she stabbed her pen at Tenjin's name, then wrote _Scroll of Seals. Hokage's residence. Help?_

The girl snorted. "Oh, I think 'ridiculous' is a bit of an understatement. Insane might be a better term." She took the pen from Sakura: _I never had to pass a test for my internship at T&I. Are you sure this is legit?_

Sakura laughed, _I have so many doubts. Also, you're a Yamanaka, why would you need to pass a test for T&I? _"Whose team do you want to be on?"

Ino squealed, flung herself back on the bed, hugging the pillow in answer and snatched the paper with the pen in a smooth motion. She scribbled an answer while fangirling- the epitome of multi-tasking- gods Sakura envied some of Ino's talents.

_If you're not sure, investigate the test and the players first before playing their game. This is really serious; you can't afford to be wrong. Don't let them trick you into going at their pace. MI is known for eating people alive._

"I do hope that the teams are mixed." Sakura said, eyes still on the drying ink. "Some of our tests have been civilian only and it's only highlighted that we're not the same. Shouldn't everyone sit the same tests?"

Ino's gaze snapped up. "That's a bit unfair, I guess. Opportunity should be the same. You want to be on Sasuke-kun's team as well?"

"Of course." Sakura frowned, "But we don't know what might happen."

Ino leant forward and patted her hand, "Do your best, ne." She said comfortably, "Keep a clear head, think critically and no one will be able to hold anything against you."

All the while, the girl wrote out her true response. _I'll ask dad discreetly what the MI policy is for cadet interns. This test is weird, why is Mizuki-sensei directing it? By all rights, no academy sensei should choose the members of another department, and definitely not for a Black Ops department. An internship in a department can set up a cadet for life._

"Thanks." Sakura smiled at her gratefully.

"Don't mention it." Ino drew back, a slight pinch between her eyebrows which signified she was scrutinizing a problem intensely. _Did they give you anything? _

Sakura drew out the failure seal and Ino's expression grew tighter. From her expression, she knew that the seal was legitimate. Ino only looked this disgruntled when she was genuinely thrown.

_He said that the Hokage agreed to the test. _Sakura wrote, and Ino nodded, tapping Tenjin's name.

"Who," She stressed, "Else would you like to team up with?"

Sakura perked up, "Hinata-chan!" _Year below. Never met him before. Mizuki-sensei knows him well enough._

"Not me?" Ino asked, regressing straight into a sulk. "Why do I bother with you?"

"We can't both be on the same team as Sasuke-kun." Sakura soothed, more prone to be kind than teasing as Ino was helping her. "How unsatisfying would that be? We'd be too busy fighting to spend time with him."

Ino looked away, "I'd win."

"Of course, you would." Sakura nodded and the Yamanaka glared at her suspiciously.

_You idiot, Mizuki-sensei doesn't teach the year below. That's Tsuna-sensei and Kaede-sensei._

Sakura blinked. She…had overlooked that fact.

_Check him out first. _The Yamanaka scribbled; _He was the boy you were talking with earlier?_

She blinked again. _Just who were you watching in class? Yes._

_Never mind that, I can multi-task. _"I think I might be destined to be with Shikamaru and Choji, if I pass." Ino sighed, "It's not fair, I'm stuck with captain lazy and fatass because our dads work together well. We're not the same people…"

"At least you know them well enough." Sakura offered. "It's better than being on a team with people you dislike."

She sniffed, "It's because I know them well enough that I know how annoying they are. And it goes both ways, our sensei is going to have a grand time teaching us teamwork if it happens. But, if we're serious for a minute, Forehead, if the two of us were on a team with a third member we could get on with," Ino's eyes were frustrated and _fierce, _"We could out manoeuvre _every single _three man cell in our class."

"It'll never happen." Sakura said quietly. "There's not enough kunoichis for them to assign two to a single team. Every single one?"

"Every single one." Ino confirmed, mouth a thin line. Sakura could see a shadow of Inoichi in the planes of the girl's face, "Sasuke-kun is _excellent, _Shikamaru is brilliant, Shino is determined as all _hell, _I don't even need to start on Hinata, but there's not a single unit in our class who can read other like we can."

"Shikamaru-kun and Choji-kun?"

Ino twisted her face, "Ugh. No. Shika's too used to being gentle with Choji's feelings and Choji lets Shika do the strategic planning for him and follows the instructions. Maybe in time when they learn to complement each other-" She groaned again, hands over her face, "That's going to be my job, isn't it?"

"There's no use crying over what you can't change." Sakura said, not unkindly.

"I can't even charm them into doing things for me!" The girl said loudly, a bit too loudly for their conversation to be private, but her father would find it more amusing than inappropriate. "What kind of boys are they?! Aren't I pretty? Forehead, aren't I pretty?"

"Fishing for compliments certainly isn't."

The Yamanaka waved her hands, "Stop being a smart-ass, it's not attractive in the slightest."

"I think we just established that you're not an expert at determining what people find attractive." Sakura was very amused.

Ino bared her teeth at her. "Watch yourself." She threatened, "Carry on this way and the universe will stick you on a team with Naruto."

"Yes." She frowned, "He surprised me earlier."

"He's the number one unpredictable ninja." Ino was very unimpressed, "If you like him so much, go be on a team with him and disgust Sasuke-kun into staying _far _away. I _was _complaining about my future team before you hijacked it."

Sakura grinned in apology, holding up her palms. "So sorry. Do continue."

They stayed up talking, planning and scribbling on the paper until midnight- when Haruno Kirai put them forcibly to bed, the spare futon stored under Sakura's bedframe and they had to scramble to hide the offending conversation.

**Next chapter: Sakura tries to pry the covers off this mysterious test. Let me know if you liked it?**


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